Chapter 8:
“Here take this,” Katie said when she came back into the room. Following her were three more Bugbots, each several times larger than the first one he saw. The one she handed him, though, was about backpack-sized.
It had taken Ben a second to realize what it was, as unlike the bots running around, its legs and some other parts were retracted, making it look like a big blocky oval.
“Um, thanks,” Ben said, holding onto the drone. It was lighter than he’d thought it would be. Maybe less than ten pounds.
Ben peered at it a bit, spinning it around to get a better look at the dull gray of its exterior. Was there something obvious he was missing? Did she just want him to carry it around?
“Put it on your back,” Katie said, putting one hand on her hip. “It will automatically latch on.”
Ben quickly held the Bugbot away from his body. “You want me… To let one of your creepy Bugbots just grab onto me and ride my back? Really? I said I was sorry about not telling you about hunting incursions, right? Do you have to punish me more?”
Katie let out a small laugh and rolled her eyes. “Don’t be such a big baby, Ben. And stop calling them Bugbots. Their Advanced Autonomous Drones with a variety of amazing built-in features. AADs if you have to call them something or just drones. Now put it on your back. I’m sure afterward you’ll be begging me to lend it to you.
Ben looked at the Bugbot—which was a better name than AAD—he was still holding at arm's length with skepticism. Then, with a sigh, he pulled it back towards him. Rotating it around again to get a better look, Ben realized there was what appeared to be a handle at either the front or the back of the Bugbot. He gripped it with one hand and moved the whole thing around his body so it touched his back.
“Gah,” Ben couldn’t help but cry out as a mechanical whirring sound came from the Bugbot.
Then he felt six limbs latch onto him. There were two above his shoulders and four under his arms. The ones that went over his shoulder extended several times until they went all the way under his armpits like backpack straps. The ones under his arms connected together around his torso. Once those connected, there were a couple of more mechanical sounds before it seemed to settle down and stop moving.
With that ordeal over, Ben patted the limbs over his shoulders and started to move around and jump a bit as well, testing just how secure it was. When it was obvious that it was pretty darn secure, he turned back to Katie warily. “Okay, strapped in now. Please tell me this isn’t some kind of weird torture device.”
Katie rolled her eyes. “If you keep that up, I won’t let you borrow it. Now, find the button on the left strap and click it. It should be on the left side. Then, prepare to be amazed.”
“Alright,” Ben said, quickly finding the button and thumbing it. “But if this does something weird, I’m telling Anna.”
With that said, Ben clicked the button.
For a second nothing happened. Then there was a low thrumming sound from his back and he could see a blue light being reflected off the floor. Finally, Ben’s feet left the ground just an inch and he floated there. The straps didn’t dig into him at all and it felt like his whole body was weightless.
“Wow,” Ben said, just floating for a moment before he tried twisting around and getting himself to spin. It was harder than he thought, as if the Bugbot was resisting his movements with whatever it was using to float him. Not enough that he couldn’t do it but enough to notice. When he stopped trying to move around, the Bugbot righted him to an upright position. “This is pretty cool. What is it? Like a kind of jetpack Bugbot?”
“Still not a Bugbot,” Katie said, rolling her eyes. Then she snapped her fingers and another Bugbot, larger and shinier than Ben's, ran up to Katie and lept at her back. It latched onto her back just like his, but the head part extended and extruded a glass bit before covering her head. It left her with a sleek-looking helmet to go with her Bugpack and the legs around her torso expanded to cover most of her torso like armor. “And yours isn’t really a jetpack. More of just an antigravity unit. It was meant for search and rescue and stuff, but right now all it knows how to do is attach to people, float them and keep them upright or prone, and provide a bit of thrust so I can maneuver them around.”
“Huh,” Ben said before deciding to try something. He opened his inventory in his mind and pulled out another quartz gem, as the one he’d been using had been all used up with his experimenting. This other gem was another one of the ones he just bought, but this one was full thanks to his transfer Skill.
Spinning to face away from Katie and the door, Ben started accelerating himself slowly by only applying a little energy. Maybe about a third of his normal max output. Despite that, rather quickly Ben started to speed up and needed to use more energy to slow down before he hit the other side of the wall.
A bit finicky but he could see himself getting used to it rather quickly. Especially when out in the open.
Ben spun to look at Katie who was looking at him with a smirk. This time, he didn’t feel the need not to feed her ego. “Alright, I admit it. This is pretty awesome…” Ben said, trailing off as he realized something.
Katie's smirk turned into a bit of a frown and her own pack started to hum and glow blue near the bottom. Then she started moving over much more controlled than he did. “I’m glad you can see how awesome it is, but what’s with the sudden sullen look? Jealous of my awesome?”
Ben winced a bit before nodding. “Maybe just a little. I realize that your one invention kinda lets me do what my power was doing with the jumping and stuff but way better.”
Katie frowned and floated over, patting Ben on the shoulder. “Don’t go all depressed on me now, Benny. You literally just got your powers. If my stuff couldn’t make me more impressive then I would be the shittiest B-Rank Tinker in existence. Also, even ignoring the leveling boost thing and your power’s future versatility, that drone really isn’t all that great. It’s only good for you cause you can move yourself with your power since it’s slow on its own and the battery wouldn’t last long if it had to handle moving, too.”
Ben bit his lip at the reminder about the level boost but nodded. “Right. I’m being stupid. I shouldn’t be whining about not being amazing on day one. And especially not when I got so lucky with other things.”
“I wouldn’t say you're being stupid,” Katie said, patting Ben on his shoulder again before backing off. “Well, normally I would, but not for this. It’s easy to start comparing yourself to other Supers… Especially if their powers are similar or they can do something similar and you come up short… And especially when you can see the difference so clearly with ranks…”
Katie looked off to the side with a frown on her face before she shook her head.
“You just gotta remember that even if you're lacking now, you might not always be so in the future. After all, with the System, technically anything is possible. Heck, now we know SS-Rank is definitely possible and not something made up by aliens or were just rumors.”
Ben nodded at Katie’s words, trying to internalize them. “Yeah. You’re right. If I’m ever feeling weak, then I just have to remember I can get stronger.”
Katie grinned at that. “Yep. Now let me give you a quick rundown on what I’m bringing. You tell me anything else you’ve figured with your powers. Then we can get dressed up in our costumes and we can go.”
“Costumes?”
“Don’t worry about it. Info first.”
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After Katie gave Ben a quick rundown of what her various Bugbots did, he had to admit that she was far more impressive than he thought. B-Rank tinkers really weren’t to be underestimated. That didn’t make him want to come with any less, however. An extra pair of hands wouldn’t hurt, and with his new maneuverability, as long as he stayed back if there was too much danger, he wouldn’t be a liability.
Besides, after Ben’s testing when Katie had been grabbing her gear, along with some calculations he needed Katie to double-check, they figured that his third Kinetic Energy skill was by far the most impressive. At least in terms of pure firepower and when taking into account all his inherited gems. And while he would have to be very careful with it if used against people, even Katie had to admit that it certainly made him more than just an E-Ranker.
With all that taken care of, the two of them left the training room and headed back to Katie’s lab, along with her three Bugbots still following along. There, much to Ben’s surprise, she had costumes ready. One for her and one for him.
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Katie having a costume for herself was not a surprise. Her having one ready for him, though, very much was. He was half expecting it to be some kind of joke. Maybe her trying to get him to wear one of her backup costumes or something. But nope, it was not that. It was even in his size.
The only answer he got about why she had that prepped was, “It’s not important. Just get dressed and we can go.”
Considering the fact that Katie's face had pinked a bit as she said that, Ben decided not to poke the sleeping dragon and instead do what she said. Going to one of the bathrooms upstairs, Ben changed out of his t-shirt and jeans and into the outfit. First, though, he also had to take off the Bugbot.
The costume consisted of a form-fitting blue and black patterned bodysuit with decent padding and some pockets. On top of that went a bright blue and metallic gray ballistic vest that looked a lot sleeker than a normal one. Either it had tinker tech to make it actually bulletproof or was just a design choice. He’d have to check with Katie. For footwear, there were some heavy-duty combat boots with the same coloring as the vest. Finally, there was the blue and black mask. It was the kind that covered the whole head except for the eyes, ears, and mouth area.
Overall, once Ben had put it all on, It looked rather good in his eyes. He wasn’t any kind of fashion expert, but it seemed Katie knew what she was doing. It was also more comfortable than it looked. Despite all the thought Ben had put into Supers and their powers, it seemed he hadn’t given enough thought about their costumes. Apparently, they were a lot more comfortable than they looked. Despite being pretty form-fitting and having to cover his head and hair, it didn’t feel hot at all. Perhaps he’d change his mind outside of an air-conditioned house but he doubted it.
There were only two nitpicks Ben had with the costume, though they were both understandable. One was the lack of anything in the circle design on the vest. That would be where a logo could go, but he didn’t have one yet so it remained empty. The other was the Bugbot. Once Ben put it back out, it stuck out oddly because of the outfit’s vest. But it wasn’t like he was gonna leave it behind for aesthetics so he ignored that.
Finished with getting ready, Ben met Katie back down in her lab.
Only to pause for a second to take her in. She looked… really good in her costume. Both properly heroic and ugh… Good. Despite the padding their suits had, Ben couldn’t help but think the form-fitting outfit fit her a lot better than it did him. Sure he was pretty athletic, but… Well, form-fitting seemed to work better on girls than on guys. At least in his opinion. Even if her chest was covered in her Bugbot armor.
Ben tried to not think about that and instead took in her outfit as a whole.
Her outfit was a bit like his but with some obvious differences. One was just the color scheme. She went with a teal and metallic gray coloring scheme that matched her Bugarmor and helmet. The other major differences, of course, were her helmet and her Bugbot Armor instead of a vest. There were also two suspiciously small Bugbot shaped things attached to her wrists and her boots were also metallic as well.
One of the most eye-catching things was the center of her chest. Unlike him, she had a symbol and it stood out. It was a stylized 2D crown, with five pointed parts and a stylized swarm of bugbots around it. The symbol was formed from a glowing hologram that her Bugarmor seemed to project just in front of the center of her chest.
Overall, while his outfit looked pretty good, hers looked properly heroic. The glowing from her chest and the antigrav of her Bugbot really helped with that. Or maybe Ben was just a sucker for shiny things and glowing light.
Katie smirked at Ben before giving him a quick once over and a nod of approval. Then, after confirming that the vest was indeed bulletproof—as was the undersuit to a degree apparently—she led him back to the testing room stairs. Behind them, the three Bugbot Carriers came along. After going down though, instead of going into the training room, they went into a hidden door that Katie accessed remotely. They then made their way through a metal tunnel for what felt like a block.
When Katie finally stopped in front of a door, one of her Carriers opened up and a small Bugbot was ejected and crawled up the wall before disappearing into a small panel that opened up. As they waited, she held out a hand and there was a swooshing sound before something flew out of her Bugbot Armor and landed there. It was a tiny Bugbot, much smaller than the rest, and she handed it to him.
“Earpiece,” She said with a grin.
Ben looked at the thing with a sigh. “Can’t we just use the System chat? I’m sure we'll be able to coordinate with just fifteen messages.”
Katie just rolled her eyes. “Yeah no. That’s barely anything. And there are no free calls either, only text messages. I doubt you're good enough with the System Interface to send texts while doing other things anyway. Also, while I got Credits saved, I’m not wasting them cause you don’t want to use a perfectly good earpiece.”
Ben sighed again at the creepy bug gadget but took it without a word and put it on. He shivered a bit as it latched onto his ear, and did his best to ignore it and Katie's grin once it went still.
After another moment, Katie nodded and opened the door.
“Way’s clear,” She said, and then the two of them left the small tunnel and were met with fresh open air.
They made their way up just a small flight of stairs and came out of a small fake boulder that was surrounded by a copse of trees, hidden away from sight. The sky was starting to darken just a bit but there was still maybe an hour or more before sunset. Once Ben, Katie, and her three Bugbot Carriers were out, the boulder closed back up, leaving them in a rather inconspicuous little clearing hidden away in the trees.
“Alright,” Katie said, her pack lighting up more and lifting her in the air. Then her voice started to come out of the earpiece as well. “Pull out the tracker and let’s see where we're going. We’ll take it slow at first and you stay close to me in case something happens. Once you're sure you’ve gotten the hang of it, we'll pick up the speed though we’ll keep our attitude low. Your Drone should have enough battery to get over the lake and then some, but best not take chances. I’ll top you off after the crossing just in case too. After that, we’ll try to use it sparingly and you can get some roof-hopping practice done if we go somewhere like Downtown West.”
“Okay,” Ben said, unable to keep a smile off his face. He was wearing a costume, about to go fly, and do something important. Despite his doubts and his still lacking abilities, he was really starting to feel like a Super. Maybe not a Hero yet, but soon. “Let’s get to it.”
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The tracker took a bit of fiddling to learn how to use. The System’s translation feature made it possible for them to figure it out, but it still took them a bit of time to navigate the alien interface. Eventually, though, they got it working and it gave them a direction, elevation, and distance.
Following where it led ended up with Katie and Ben going back to West Cascade. They didn’t have all that far to go as they were close to their destination soon after they crossed the lake. It seemed the box was somewhere in the southeastern side of West Cascade. More precisely, after a bit of flying around and some roof hopping, they determined that the cube was in the semi-abandoned southern half of the warehouse district.
Unlike the northern half, which was right next to the small docks that saw a lot of traffic between Haven Island and West Cascade, the southern half was a lot less nice. It was very much a bad part of the city. With the news about gangs and villain activity coming out of the area much more frequently than a lot of other places in the city. Mainly it was the various Syndicate gangs causing trouble, but Ben had heard about both the Necros and the Supremacies in the news here as well. Not a good sign for them to have an easy time recovering the cube.
Ben hovered on the roof of a rundown four-story midrise apartment building as he stored away the large quartz he was using to power his flight. This one was so large that he had to hold it in two hands. Not ideal for a fight, but fine for just traveling.
With his hands-free, he turned off his antigrav and landed properly. The sun had only just started to set, so it wasn’t dark yet and hopefully, the light from their antigrav wasn’t noticeable enough that anyone saw them land.
Katie’s Bugbot Carriers were already on the roof as well, the lights on their body also off or dimmed. They had already scouted around to look for cameras or dangers, using their vast array of sensors.
Katie touched down a second after him, her Bugarmor lights all off and leaving her a lot less noticeable. She looked down at the streets below. They were dirty and there was quite a bit of litter everywhere. The few places where there was actually earth were dry and barren of any life. In the area were just warehouses or cheap and old mid-rise buildings that replaced some of the abandoned buildings more than two decades prior.
These warehouses, along with the whole district, were built thirty years ago after several A-Rank incursions destroyed the suburbs that used to be here. The reason there were so many was because the mayor at the time had thought they needed to stockpile resources as the world might end. That thankfully never came to pass, but because of that a lot of these buildings went into disrepair and disuse.
“That’s the one?” Katie asked, pointing at the warehouse just across the street from them. For the most part, it looked like most of the other abandoned warehouses that they’d seen tonight. Dirty, covered in graffiti, with broken glass windows that were haphazardly boarded up.
Unlike those other places, though, there were some signs that it may not be as abandoned as it looked at first glance. For one, behind the haphazard boards covering the windows were much more solid and complete coverings, making it impossible to see inside. Another was that all the large loading doors they could see seemed newer and much more solid. The area around one of the ground floor doors was also conspicuously cleared of trash and debris as was the rooftop entrance.
Ben looked down at his tracker, which pointed in the direction of the warehouse. The measurement it used was unknown to him, but it was only in the double digits now. “Yeah… What are the chances it’s just squatters in there?”
“It’s not impossible,” Katie hedged as she crouched down on one leg and leaned forward. Her Bugbot Carriers scuttled up behind her, and then panels on both sides of each of them opened up. Behind each panel were six holes, where much smaller Bugbots unfolded themselves from and floated out of. Unlike their larger brethren, they did not emit light while floating. “But let’s not take our chances. I’ll send these Recon Drones to scope it out.“
“Alright,” Ben said, giving their surroundings a quick once over before crouching down next to her.
Then the two of them waited. And waited.
It was probably a lot more interesting for Katie than it was for Ben since she could see from her Bugbot cameras. He, on the other hand, could only observe the warehouse exterior and the surrounding buildings.
Which was probably why only he saw the small dark figure that appeared on the roof of their target's neighboring warehouse. Before he could say anything, though, the figure disappeared, leaving Ben wondering if he actually saw anything at all.
“Um… Swarm. We might have a problem.”